Unlike Amazon PPC ads or Google Ads, eBay Promoted Listings are not auction-based or keyword-targeted. It is by design a much simpler tool. To promote listings, sellers specify the additional commission they are willing to pay to get a sale.
Promoted listings appear at the top and bottom of the listings. Promoted listings are configured from seller dashboard > marketing > advertising dashboard
Selecting listings
To advertise listings, seller create campaigns which contain multiple seller selected listings. Listing can be selected in the following ways.
- Individually. Specific listings are added to a campaign
- Bulk. Listing are added to a campaign by category or via a CSV upload
- Rule based. Listings will be automatically added to a campaign based on a rule.
Rules define the category and prices range of products to be automatically added to a campaign.
Specifying commission
After specifying listings, the seller sets the additional commission they are willing to pay to get a sale. eBay will suggest a commission level (the ‘suggested rate’). Seller can then
- Amend the commission at the listing level
- Adjust the suggested ad rate (e.g. +5% across all listings)
- Apply a single ad rate
Once the listings are selected, and the commission set, the campaign can be launched. Campaigns can either run continuously or have a set end date.
Monitoring performance
From the advertising dashboard, sellers can see the following metrics about their ads
- Impressions. Number of impressions which sponsored ads received
- Click-through rate. The percentage of times ads are clicked
- Sold. Number of sales generated by ads
- Sales. Sales volume in local currency
- Sales conversion rate. The % of listings purchased after being viewed
- Sold ad rate. The additional commission paid
When to use promoted listings
Promoted listing can be used to boost sales under all circumstances where margin is available. They are handy under the following circumstances
- Promote listings with a good sell-through rate but low traffic.
- Promote new items to provide traffic and establish a sales history.
- Consider promoting your bestsellers if it makes sense to sacrifice some profit margin for higher sales volume.
- Consider promoting seasonal products to kick off the season with good sales or address any risk of overstocking.
- Consider promoting products you need to liquidate quickly.
Note: Sellers should optimise weak listings to improve the sell-through rate before promoting them.
